NYC public schools have a wide range of lunch menu such as Taco Tuesday and Pizza Friday but, no kosher and halal food. NYC public school students need a menu that respects them and their traditions. Many students are forced to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or cold food because hot food isn’t allowed.
School is the place students are supposed to be happy. How can they be happy, when they can’t eat what respects their religious beliefs? This is a concern because many Jewish and Muslim students have diets or have restricted foods such as they only eat kosher or halal food.
The NYC public school lunch menu does have vegan menus but, no kosher or halal food. Kosher is when the food is prepared meeting the requirement of Jewish laws. Halal is denoting or relating to meat preparation meeting the requirements of Muslim laws.
Many students face difficulty when finding good food to eat and if they can’t they have to eat cold, frozen peanut butter and jelly because some public schools do not allow students to leave school grounds and hot food is not allowed. “It’s definitely very hard to find something you can eat,” Choudery said. “It’s either you pick up peanut butter and jelly or you don’t eat that day.”
Students shouldn’t be starving themselves because a proper food isn’t being served. Especially at public schools where every student and their religious beliefs should be respected. No one would want to see their child not being able to eat because a school is disrespecting their religious belief.
Many parents, students, staff and etc. protested for a kosher and halal food menu but, no action was taken, “The Orthodox Union, a Jewish nonprofit group based in Manhattan, held rallies to pressure the city to include kosher foods in the program and executed an ad campaign on the issue in October.”, the only result that was from this was a free lunch program for all students: “De Blasio rolled out the federally funded program on Sept. 6, promising free meals for all city students. But Jewish advocates say 30,000 students in yeshivas aren’t getting the free meals because none of the food is certified kosher.”
However, what is free lunch going to do for students that are Jewish or Muslim? They still can’t eat it. This has to be resolved. No student should starve because a public school wants to serve food that violates a student’s religious beliefs.
